Hey guys, i just bought a set of rims for my MKIV Jetta. The hub on the rims is larger than the hub on my car. I dont have Hub centric rims, would it be ok/safe to drive on these for a day or two until I get hub centric rings? Do I need hub centric rings? Any help is appreciated, thanks guys!
I hope its safe~ish, I dont have any on my car right now either.
o really? how much bigger was the wheel hub than your cars hub? how long have you been driving on them? lol
The rings help to balance the wheel on center to the hub. You should be fine for a couple days I’ve seen people drive on them for years the lugs should center the wheel ok for the most part. Make sure the lugs are tight and order some cheap rings up for piece of mind.
Not really sure how big the difference was. But I have done that with atleast 3 sets of rims. The current set has been on for 3 months. I really think its more to have the rim seat correctly, but as long as you tighten them in a pattern, it should be fine. Someone corect me if I am wrong.
ok cool, i was just curious, i mean VW’s have the screws, instead of lugs, so i figured that would be better than regular studs in this situation, ill guess ill find out this weekend when i drive to NY if my wheels fall off lol
Q. What are hub-centric rings? Do I Need Them?
A. Hub-centric rings center your wheel on the vehicle’s hub.
A. Most aftermarket wheels are manufactured with a center hole that will fit a wide range of vehicles. The hub-centric ring is used to fill any gap that may exist between this hole and the vehicle’s hub, thus centering the wheel on the axle. If you have vibrations after installing new wheels, chances are hub-centric rings were not used.
So I gather there not necessary, but good for balance.
After reading about the rings I decided that might be some of the vibration in my front end, so I am ordering a new set. Discount Tire has them for $15:
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/brochure/accessories/tmpAccessoriesWheels.jsp
yeah seems like the safe thing to do. How do i find out what the size of the hub on my car is?
its for your mk4?
I wouldnt drive without them, nick (AMD IS THE BEST) bought his first set of wheels and didnt have the hubcentric rigs for it. We put the wheels on and a day later the car was makin a terrible noise we jacked the car up and one of the wheels was loose! If the wheel isnt perfectly centered when you tighten the lugs down the wheel is way out of balance
You can use the wheels without hubcentric rings, BUT when you torque the wheels on, they need to be completely unloaded, i.e., car jacked in the air. And you’d want to be certain you’re evenly torquing the lugs, not zipping them all the way on, one lug nut at a time, etc. I’ve run a bunch of different rims, many of which were not hubcentric, no problems at all.
yeah for my MK4
Since you have Lug Studs instead of the standard Stud and Nut, Yes you should DEFINATLY have hubcentric rings.
And VW/Audi etc, that has that style, you should have them for.
Ive seen some crazy shit workin in a tire store. Lets just leave it at that…
IMO, yes for a day or two and yes you should have them. Just imagine all four of your wheels rotating off centrically when you are doing 120 at the track…
When you get them make sure they are the correct size and get the rings made with metal.
Ah, that’s right- completely forgot about that. If nothing else, it’ll make screwing the lugs in a (little) easier than, well, holding the wheel and moving it around to line up… scratch my earlier comment.
Fasteners are not meant to take shear loads, this includes wheel studs/lugs. No need to go further on that subject…Use hubcentric rings if the wheel has a larger bore. Don’t use cheap plastic shit either, get aluminum rings.
I bought some yesterday for $12